THE EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN MERCENARY TROOPS IN THE FRENCH ROYAL .~~IES-1415 - 1470.

Brian G.H.Ditcham, M.A.

Ph.D. University of Edinburgh 1978

A B S T R ACT

In the early years of the fifteenth century, the impact of

English invasion, civil war and military defeat forced the French

monarchy to seek military assistance from its allies abroad. Large

numbers of men from this source served in French armies throughout the

century, and this thesis sets out to examine this rather neglected

phenomenon. The first part is a chronological survey of the history

of this involvement, which can be divided into three phases. In the

first, large foreign armies operated as separate units alongside the

French and were involved in the major battles of the period such as Bauge, Cravant and Verneuil. After the siege of Orleans, these

arm~es broke up into a host of smaller companies without any close

central organisation and only under very limited royal control. After

the reforms of 1445, the system of Compagnies d'Ordonnance restored

this and tied the soldiers into the royal patronage network, giving

the king a theorexical monopoly of organised military force. In the

second half, various themes are studied in more detail; the close

involvement of French diplomacy with matters of recruitment, the

or~g~ns of the soldiers and the potential rewards and problems which

service of the French crown might bring them. It then studies the

alternatives to royal serv~ce, the problems of discipline and the

political dangers which these posed. A re-examination of the actual

effects of the 1445 reforms leads into an attempt to comprehend the

realities of the life of soldier and captain on a day to day basis,

concluding with an e~~ination of the relationship between the

soldiers and the native French population. The thesis concludes

that the role of foreign troops in sustaining the Valois dynasty

was considerable and their experiences illuminate the realities of

military service in the later middle ages.

CON TEN T S

PART I

Introduction

Select Bibliography

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

The Beginnings - Foreign Troops 1n France to 1418

The Time of the Great Armies - Mercenaries 1418-29

The Time of the Independent Companies

Page

I

IX

1

12

64

Chapter IV All the King's Men: Companies

The Time of the Ordonnance III

Conclusion to Part One 162

PART II

Chapter V The Process of Recruitment 166

Chapter VI The Structures and Rewards of the Military Life 195

Chapter VII The Limits of Discipline 229

Chapter VIII The Realities of the iv1il i tary Life 261

Chapter IX Foreign Troops and Native Reactions 289

General Conclusion 310

I

Introduction

In some fields there has never been any shortage of writings on

the fifteenth century half of the Hundred Years \.Jar. The biblio-

graphies of work on French his tory produced annually shmv a very

considerable volume each year. Most of this, however, is concen-

trated on a few of the more picturesque aspects. French produc-

tion tends to concentrate firmly on Jeanne d'Arc at all levels

(serious, popular and plain lunatic fringe) while English language

studies have been rather thin on the ground and concerned more with

the glories of Agincourt or the problems and diplomacy of the

Lancastrian government in France than with its French enemies.

Part of this is due to the state of the sources; from 1415 orc to the

1440's documentation is very disorganised and sparse. Part, one

suspects, is due to an understandable distaste on the part of French

historians for a period when France carne as near as she was to for

many centuries to losing most of her political identity to a foreign

invader; the general diversion of French historical endeavour from

the narrowly political and diplomatic to social and economic fields,

perhaps combined with a certain bias against a century when France was

anything but "0ne and indi visible"on the poli tical front has seen to

it that, while sp/(ndid social and economic studies of individual

regions and provinces exist, surprisingly little seems to have changed

on the political front since Beaucourt was producing his still-funda-

mental work on the reign of Charles VIr in the l8io's, Many

areas of the actual conduct of the war which occupied so much of the

time of royal government, and which is the ever-present backcloth to

so much of the social and economic change of the period still reQain

obscure. One of these has been the role and activities of the very

II considerable numbers of foreign soldiers who served in the French

royal armies in this period.

Certainly they have never quite been completely forgotten; any

reader of Sir Walter Scott who read "Quentin Durward" would be aware

of the existence of Scottish units in France, and to a certain extent

the mythology of the"Auld Alliance" remains potent on both sides of

the North Sea (I myself, while working in France, found it alluded to

(in conversation) by Frenchmen of no historical training.) Detailed

studies of what it actually meant in the fifteenth century (one of

the periods when the Franco-Scottish diplomatic alignment was at its

most conspicuously effective), as well as ones on the role of other

foreigners in France have, however, been notable by their absence.

Certainly they appear on the fringes of other subjects. p S Le~ITis notes the grants of considerable lands and titles to favoured foreign

soldiers but never digresses from his maln subject to pursue the matter in detail. Foreigners appear on the edges of Vale's biography

of Charles VII, but again his maln interests do not lead him into a

closer examination of their role. Even Contamine in his fundamental

study of the French armies of the later middle ages seems, to my mind,

to rather underplay the importance of the foreign element in these

armles. The section on the Kingdom of Bourges, which was the time

of greatest involvement by such elements is comparatively short and

devotes much space to the collapse of French military administration

which makes the careers of all soldiers in this period so hard to

fo lImIT. His attitude to the foreigners seems to be that they are in

themselves a symptom of the collapse of royal control; a fair enough

conclusion as far as it goes but bv no means the last word which can

III

be said on the subject. Indeed, the only major work on the life and career of one of the leaders of such foreign troops dates back

some hundred years - Jules Quicherat's biography of the spectacular

and perhaps atypical career of Rodrigo de Villandrando. This

sparked off quite a Villandrando industry in the columns of French

learned journals with local archivists and antiquaries combing their ~

localities for traces of the passageof the great Ecorcheur (one so~e-

times gets the impression that some areas in the south of France were

really rather disappointed if they failed to find any),- perhaps the

first time in history that Villandrando had ever been positively

welcome anywhere. Other nineteenth-century writers like Francisque-

Michel and Forbes-Leith produced works on the Scots in France, but

their interpretations are often at fault and their statements of fact

downright misleading; the former in particular has an irritating

habit of not quoting his sources and a determination to find Scottish

ancestry for large numbers of noble families in France, even where the

evidence, to say the least, is thin.

Nevertheless, this generally untilled field lS potentially a

fertile one. Henry V was to die raving that he could not escape from

the Scots; a Scot became briefly Constable of France and perhaps the

greatest Anglo-Scottish battle between Bannockburn and Flodden was to be

fought in France. This suggests very considerable armies and an

important role for Scots and other foreigners in the French armies. It

is the purpose of this study to examlne just how substantial a role they did play. Because of the limited state of knowledge at the present

(especially given that military history has been unfashionable until

within the last twenty years and has tended to be left to retired

military men of limited historical training) it has to operate on at

IV

least two levels. The first half is largely a narrative history

which attempts to trace the fate of foreign troops from the

beginning of their large-scale employment in the aftermath of Agincourt

to the reign of Louis XI when a new orientation begins to appear as

far as such recruitment was concerned. It IS largely a tale of

battles fought (often major ones; Verneuil, the greatest battle in which foreigners were to be heavily involved, was one of the main

battles of the war if one of the most neglected) and troo~_ move-

ments, though with much to say about the diplomacy of recr~itment,

the importance of non-royal directed warfare and, after 1445, the

organisation and operations of the ~agnie s d' ot:-donnance_. The

second half is more analytical in its aim; foreign troops are used

as a group in the light of whose careers one can examIne certain

problems not peculiar to them In addition to trying to look at them

more In their own right. In this section we shall examIne such

matters as recruitment, the reward and problems of service, the

difficulties which they caused in the matter of discipline, their

style of life in the army after 1445 and their success or failure In

adapting to French society. This format permits one to examine

wider issues concerning the French royal army as a whole, the actual

effects of the 1445 reform on the lives of those, both soldiers and

civilians involved in it, the old debate over the profits of war to 'I

those involved in it, the actual role of Ecorcheur companIes In

French warfare and their relationship with the crown. In addition,

the operations of French diplomacy in the 1420's are bound to come

under examination.

It has not always been easy to produce a coherent narrative;

the sources tor this period are highlv disjointed, since the Revolution

v

destroyed much of what were always at best fragmentary official

records, and the largest of the foreign groups, the Army of Scotland,

was almost completely cut off from the mainstream of French military

administration. This means that some questions are always likely

to remain unanswerable. For instance it becomes almost impossible

to make any estimate worthy of serious consideration of the actual

numbers of foreign troops engaged outside very vague limits.

Chronicle accounts do not always record the presence of foreigners

in the armies engaged ~n the battles they report, and involvement

must often be guessed at rather than firmly proven. Town records,

especially in the case of Tours, are invaluable in reconstructing

the relationship between towns and the armies of the da:y while

giving information on movement of forces too humble to attract the

attention of other writers, while the letters of remission in the

JJ series of the Archives Nationales are invaluable for information

about daily life in the ordonnance companies with a few glances back

to earlier days. With the kind of comprehensive aid which Quicherat

was able to inspire, it might be possible to find out much more about

the activities of foreign soldiers at a local level, but a lifetime

could be spent combing the archives of large and small tmvns alike

without anything of very great moment coming to light and it seemed

better to place the results of my researches to date on record, patchy

though the picture which they give sometimes is, in the hope that if

there are radical deficiencies they can be corrected by other research-

ers. There are other problems as well; as a Scot working from a

Scottish university, I have always been conscious that there is a real

danger that the Scottish elenent in the story will come to blot out

the others. If there seems to be a heavy concentration on the Scots,

VI

this is not because I have been unaware of the problems of balance

but rather because the evidence itself commands this bias. There

can be little doubt that the Scots were by far the most numerous of

the foreign 3rouPS in France and their compatriots cer~ainly maintain-

ed a deep interest in their exploits overseas; indeed the two Scottish

chronicles which cover the 1420's concentrate so deeply on the events

in France that purely domestic Scottish affairs are relegated to a very

inferior position. This did not happen either in Spain or in Italy.

In addition, the official record in France seems to be much more con-

cerned with the Scots than with other nationalities because of their

greater numbers and military importance in the context of the royal

armies (the picture may well have been rather different in the more

independent companies, but there is far less material on their inter-

nalorganisation).

Inevitably a work of this kind could not have proceeded without

a considerable amount of assistance and encouragement from very many

people; far more than I can hope to mention here. First should come

my parents, who have supported me through the three years of my

researches in every possible way with great generosity. In many way s ,

it was my father who initially inspired a youthful interest in military

history from the experiences of his mvn life as a regular soldier in

war and peace. I hope this study will be an adequate product of this

interest. I would also like to thank the Carnegie Trust for the

Universities of Scotland, ~Yhose grant of a scholarship enabled ::1e to

pay the bills on both sides of the Channel during my travels and

researches. The study itself ones a vast amount to the aid and council

given by my supervlsor, Professor Kenneth Fowler of the University of

Edinburgh, whose guidance has often been crucial in setting me on the

VII

track of source material which I might otherwise have missed. I

should also like to express my gratitude to all the staff at both the

universities which I have attended. The department of ~ediaeval

History at St. Andrews has aided my work even after I left its

fifteenth century precincts for the 1960's concrete of Edinburgh

University Department of History; my thanks go to all in both

departments who have helped me, especially Miss A J Kettle, Dr. G

Parker, Mr. A Goodman and Dr. M G Dickson. In France, I obviously

owe much to the staffs of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Archives

Nationales and the various Archives Departmentales and Municipales who

have guided me on the various stages of my travels through the records

of fifteenth century France. My special thanks eo to Professor

Pierre Capra of the University of Bordeaux for his very generous

hospitality and help during my visit to his most beautifnl city during

one of the coldest Easters on record, and to Miss Laura Hamson, then

of the University of Alberta and student of mediaeval Bourges for

fascinating diseussions about this city, its contacts with foreigners,

and the realities of France in that period. Indeed, I should like

to record my thanks to my various friends, both professionally

interested and purely amateur, who have had to put up with my sometimes

curious interest and concerns and have done so with amazing tolerance;

thanks especially to Sue ~~illdig and Sarah Hardy for their much-

appreciated friendship both during and after the sometimes rather

lonely months in Paris and above all to Lesley Pattinson for her deep

and abiding concern for and interest in my doings at all times.

Finally, specially large thanks are due to my aunt, :'fiss May Hunter for

her near miraculous transformation of a very messy typescript indeed

into its present splendid state. I can only hope that the resulting

VIII

thesis is worthy of the great amounts of help and friendship which

the author has received from these and many more besides too numerous

to mention by name in the course of its creation.

IX

SELECT 3IBLIOGRAPWI

It would be very difficult to list all the books which have in some way influenced my approach to this subject; in this bibliography I have confined myself to those which have been in some way of direct relevance either for information or for comparative material. In the text, the following conventions have been used. All manuscript material, unless otherwise identified, comes from the Bibliotheque Nationale, while in the case of local archives, the name of the Departement or municipality concerned prefaces the call numbers of the document. The following abbreviations are used:

A H Archives Historiques (followed by the name of a region, e.g. Poitou or Gascogne)

A N Archives Nationales Arsenal - Biblioth~que de l'Arsenal Clairambault Bibliotheque Nationale Fonds Clairambault Doat Dupuy FF FL

Contamine GES -

NAF

PO

Bibliotheque ~~ationale Fonds Doat Bibliotheque Nationale Fonds Dupuy Bibliotheque ~ationale Fonds Francais

.,

Bibliotheque Nationale Fonds Latin ,

.. ..... ,

P Contamine Gue r re Eta t e t Socie te a la Fin du Hoyen Age Biblioth~que Nationale Nouvelles Acquisitions Francaises

~ ... Biblioth~que Nationale Pieces Originales

1. Manuscript Sources

I Central Archives

Archives Nationales AB XIX 690-3 (Dictionnaire de Dom /

Bevy) J 169-75, 183, 210-26, 475-81, 505,

657, 677 JJ 176-204 K 59, 62, 67, 69, 168 KK 50-53, 65, 67, 268-9 Xla 4798-4807, 8604-6, 9195-6,

9199-9200 X2a 18-32

Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal 4522

x

Bib1iotheque Nationa1e:

(1) Fonds C1airambau1t 3-221, 234-5

(2) Fonds Doat 9, 161

(3) Fonds Dupuy 38

(4) Fonds Francais 2701, 2886, 5028, 5059, 5908, 6971, 7858, 11542, 17330, 17779, 20427, 20486, 20491, 20579-85, 20684-5, 20692, 21405, 21477, 23018, 23259-62, 23271, 24000, 25710-3, 25766-79, 26042-92, 26263-99, 32263, 32510-1

(5) Fonds Latin 5414A, 6024, 8757, 10187

(6) Nouvelles Acquisitions Francaises 1001, 8637

(7) Pi~ces Origina1es 1-3061

II Local Archives

Archives D(partementa1es: Cher - C 793,1046 Raute--{;aronne - 3E 176, 537, 1449,

1993, 4400,4468, 5009, 6146-7, 6756

Loire- e t -Cher - 30R 32 Loiret - A 2178

/ (Archives Municipa1es, Orleans) -CC 546-9, 551, 652, 654,

657, 700-1 Indre-et ~oire - E iy,-~- IvC,1.{ (Archives Municipa1es, Tours) -

BB 22-28 CC 19-29 EE 2

Vienne - C 330

XI

Archives Municipales B~rges ~ 7, 13 t:. f ;

Biblioth~que Municipale - Blois - Fonds Joursanvault 1127

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XII

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I

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XIII

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XIV

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BOUDET (M) St. Flour et sa Prevote pendant les Revoltes des Armagnacs et des Bourbons ~ XVe Siecle Paris 1909.

BOURDEAUT (A) 'Un Compagnon de Guerre de Jeanne d'Arc et du Connetab1e de Richemont; Pierre de Rieux Xarechal de

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" BOUTAR1C (E) Institutions Mi1itaires de 1a France avant 1es Armees Permanent

xv

" / .-CADIER (L) La Senechaussee des Lannes sousChar1es VII; Administration Royale et Etats Provinciaux Paris 1885.

CAlL LET (L) Etude sur 1es Relations de 1a Commune de Lvon avec .I

Charles VII et Louis 11_ Paris-Lyon 1909. CAMPBELL (J) 'England, Scot land and the Hundred Years ~-iar in the

Fourteenth Century' Europe in the Late Middle Ages ed. J Hale, R Highfield and B Smalley London 1965.

CARR (1\ D) 'We 1shmen and the Hundred Years i.Jar' The \.Je Ish His tory Review Vol. IV no. 1 1968.

CAZELLES (R) La Societe Po1itique et 1a Crise de 1a Royaute sous Philippe de Valois Paris 1958.

CHABANNES (Comte Henri de) Histoire de 1a Maison de Chabannes Dijon 1892-1901.

CHEVALIER (Abbe C) 'La Ville d'Azay-1e-Rideau au XVe et XVle Siec1es' Bulletin de 1a Societe Archeo1ogique de Touraine 1873.

CONTAMlNE (P) Guerre, Etat et Societe a 1a Fin de Moyen Age; Etudes sur les Armeir du Roi de France (1328-1494) Paris - The Hague 1972.

CONTAMINE (P) La Vie Quotidienne Pendant 1a Guerre de Cent Ans, France et Ang1eterre Paris 1976. ... "

CONTAMINE CP) 'Les Arm?es Francaise J et Ang1aise a l'Epoque de Jeanne d'Arc' Revue des Soci~ties Savantes de Haute Normandie Vol. LVII 1970.

COSNEAU (E) Le Connetab1e de Richemont, 1393-1458 Paris 1886. COURTY (A) 'Cet Inconnu Jehan de Salazar, Sire de Libourne

1462-79' Revue Historique et Archeologique du Libournais Vol. XXXIII no. 117 1965.

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au l4e et au l5e Siec1es Paris 1898. DELAVILLE Ie ROULXC M) La Domination Bourguignon,nca Tours et af.~

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Vo1s. IX-XII New Edition Toulouse 1885-9. EDElNE (B) La Sologne Paris 1974. FILLEAU (H) Dictionnairedes FamilIes de l'AncienPoitouPoitiers

1848-54. FLAMARE (H de) Le Nivernais pendant 1a Guerre de Cent Ans Nevers-

Paris 1913-25. FORBES-LEITH (W) The Scots Men at Arms and Lifeguards in France

Edinburgh 1882. FOWLER (K) Ced.) The Hundred Years War London 1971. FRANCISQUE-MICHEL Les Ecossais en France, Les Francais, ~n ~cosse ,

London 1862. v,/r,': :,r-.; 0;:CJ-'Nf''C; GAUSSIN (P-R) Louis XI, Roi Meconnu!\P aris 1976. . ... GEREMEK (B) Les Marginaux Parisiens aux XIV et XVe S~ec1es trans.

D Beauvois Paris 1976. HUGUENIN (J F) Les Chroniques de 1a Ville de ~letz Metz 1838. HUGUET (A) Aspects de 1a Guerre de Cent Ails en Picardie :-laritime

1400-50 Paris 1944.

XVI

ILARDI (V) 'The Italian League, Francesco Sforza and Charles VII (1454-61)' Studies in the Renaissance Vol. VI 1959.

KEEN (M) The Laws of War in the late ~iddle Ages London 1965. KEEN (~) and DANIELS (M) 'English Diplomacy and the Sack of

" . Fougeresln 1449' History Vol. 59 no. 197 1974. KENDALL (P ~) Louis XI London 1971. LAW (R) 'Horses, Firearms and Political Power in Pre-colonial

West Africa' Past and Present no. 72 1976. LEWIS(P S) Later Mediaeval France; the Polity London 1968. McFARLANE (K B) 'England and the Hundred Years Har' Past and

Present no. 22 1962. MALLETT (M) Mercenaries and their Masters: rJarfare in Renaissance

Italy London 1974. MANDROT (B de) Relations de Charles VII et Louis XI avec les

Cantons Suisses Zurich 1881. MlROT (L) 'Dom Bevy et les Comptes des Tr~soriers des Guerres-

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"-MOLLAT (M) Le Conunerce Maritime Normand a la Fin du 'loyen Age Paris 1952.

MORRILL (J S) 'Mutiny and Discontent in English Provincial Armies 1645-1647' Past and Present no. 56 1972.

NEWHALL (R A) Muster and Review: a Problem of English Military Administration 1420-40 Cambridge Mass. 1940.

NICHOLSON (R) Scotland in the Later ~iddle Ages Edinburgh 1974. PARKER (G) The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road 1572-1609;

The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries Wars London 1972.

PARKER (G) 'Mutiny and Discontent in the Spanish Army of the Netherlands 1572-1607' Past and Present no. 58 1973.

PERROY (E) The Hundred Years War trans. W B Hells London 1951. PETIT (E) 'Les Ecorcheurs dans l'Avallonais' Bulletin de la

Soci~te des Etudes d'Avallon Vol. VI 1864. PEYRONNET (G) 'Les Relations Politiques entre la France et

l'Italie, Principa1ement au XIVe et dans 1a Premiere Moiti~du XV~ Siecles' Le Moyen Age 4th Series Vols. IV and V 1949-50.

POLl (0 de) Les Defenseurs de Mont St. Michel Paris 1895. PORTAL (C) 'Rodrigo de Villandrando et les Habitants de Cordes'

Annales du Midi Vol. VII 1895. POSTAN (M M) 'The Costs of the Hundred Years Har' Past and Present

no. 27 1964. QUICHERAT (J) Rodrig:12 de Villandrando Paris 1879. RIBADIEU (H) La Conqu~te de~"Guienne par les Franc;ais Bordeaux 1866. SAULCY (C de) and HUGUENIN (J F) Relation du Siege de Metz en 1444

par Charles VII et Rene d'Anjou Metz 1835. SAUSSEY (Charles de la) Annales Ecclesiae Aureliensis Paris 1615. SOLON (P D) 'Popular Response to Standing ~ilitary Forces in 15th

Centurv Prance' Studies in the Renaissance Vol. XIX 1972. ~

STErn (H) Charles de France, Frere de Louis XI Paris 1921. STUART (A) A Genealogical History of the Stewarts London 1798. THOMAS (A) 'Rodrigo de Villandrando en Rouergue' Anna1es du ~idi

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no. ".189/.

XVII

THOMAS (A) 'Soldats Italiens au Service de la France en 1417' Annales du ;1idi VO(IV 1892.

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TUETCy (A) Les Ecorcheurs sous Charles VII Montbeliard 1874. VALE (M G A) English Gascony 1399-1453 London 1970. VALE (M G A) Charles VII London 1974. VAUGHAN (R) John the Fearless London 1966. VAUGHAN (R) Philip the Good London 1970. VAUGHAN (R) Charles the Bold London 1973. VERDIER (Abbe J) 'Montargis et Ie Siege d'Orltans' Societ

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1

Chapter 1. The Beginnings Foreign Troops in France to 1418.

"Depuis XXXIII anz enca et des devant a eu plusieurs divisions )

civiles en ce royaume, soubz umbre et par Ie moyen desquelles les

seigneurs ont leve et mis sus plusieurs gens de guerre avecques

lesquels se sont mis gens de peuple et y sont venus a cause de ce

plusieurs estrangiers, tant Escossoys, Espagnos, Lombars Arragon-

ois et gens de toutes nacions estrenges" (1). Jean Juvenal des

Ursins, lamenting the state of the nation at the Estates of Orl~ns in 1439 was in no doubt as to the date and cause of the beginnings

of the employment on a large scale of foreign troops in France.

Civil strife was to blame in his eyes and that had begun on a

serious scale around 1406.

As so often in the thunderous pronouncements of Jean Juvenal

and other sermonisers and moralists of his ilk, this admirably

straightforward explanation, while it has much to commend it, 1S

nevertheless rather misleading as far as foreign soldiers are

concerned. Such figures were no strangers in France well before

the suggested date. The kings of France had for many years filled

the gaps in their traditional armies with specialists hired beyond

the boundaries of the kingdom. The unfortunate Genoese crossbow-

men slaughtered on the slopes of Cr{cy in 1346 are merely the most

conspicuous representatives of their type, and this failure did

nothing to discourage' the early Valois from using their services (2). Cazelles (3) records the careers of several foreigners in the

(1) BN Fonds Francais (hereafter FF) 2701 f8ro (2) Contamine has suggested that the majority of them were not in

fact professional soldiers at all, but rather oarsmen and other sailors for the royal galleys pressed into service (P. Contamine La Vie Quotidienne Pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans Paris, 1976 p. 248-9.

(3) R. Cazelles La Sociite Politique et la Crise de la Royaute~sous Philippe de Valois Paris 1958 p. 275-7.

2

service of Philip VI, and the reorganised armies of Charles V under

du Guesclin and Clisson showed an overwhelming majority of foreign-ers (Genoese, Spaniards and others) amongst their infantry forces (4).

Even the mounted (and thus more noble) men at arms could boast their

foreigners, most notably the Welsh exiles Owen de Galles (Owain

Lawgoch, last descendant of the Princes of Gwynedd) and Jean \~yn

and their Welsh followings as well as isolated foreigners in other

companies (5). This essentially traditional mixture of specialist

companies and smallish groups of political exiles and more or less

chivalrically-inspired foreigners entering the French service for

longer or shorter periods continued into the early years of the

fifteenth century (6).

The disorders which began in this period, however, certainly

stimulated recruitment as well as producing conditions in parts of

France reminiscent on a smaller scale of the days of the great

companies of the 1370's. Most of the princes involved in the

fighting were to recruit troops from abroad. John the Fearless

bolstered his armies with strangers to his Burgundian dominions

particularly freely; Highland Scots in 1411,(7), Savoyards, Lombards

(a band headed by a Lombard and three Savoyards was very active on

his behalf in 1416-7), (8) and Spaniards (the later-notorious

(4) . -' ......, . P. Contamine Guerre, Etat et Soc~ete a la F~n du Moyen Age; Etudes sur le~s~A~rm--e~e~s--d~e--s--R-o~i-s--d~e~F~r-a-n-c--e~1~3~3~7~-~1~4~9~4~P~a-r-1~'-s=-and : o[ ItAl'UL' 1972 (hereafter GES) p.155.

(5) id p. 154. For individual careers, see id p.576-7, 592-3 and AD Carr 'Welshmen tvc the Hundred Years War' The Welsh History Review Vol. IV No. 1 p.3l-5.

(6) 4-5000 Genoese crossbowmen served at the siege of Calais in 1~06 (Enguerrand de Monstrelet Chronique ed. L Douet d'Arcq Paris 1858 Vol. 1 p. 135), and other foreign nobles like the Earl of Crawford served with the French at around this time (J. Balfour Paul The Scots Peerage Edinburgh 1904-14 Vol. III p.16.

(7) R. Vaughan John the Fearless London 1966 pp. 87, 260. (8) Monstrelet Vol. III pp. 150, 153, 180.

I 3 "Ecorcheur" Rodrigo de Villandrando was to begin his French career

in the company of the Burgundian Villiers de l'Isle Adam) (9). He

was not alone. A Lombard Knight was prominent amongst the Armagnac

forces deployed against John in 1411 (10), while the town authorit-,;

ies of St. Jean d'Angely held a German called "Anequin de

Constances", the servant of a Lombard man at arms in the company

of the Bastard of Bourbon in prison accused of the theft of four

cattle from one Guillamme Raoul de Poursay. He, however, failed

to appear in court, so Anequin was duly freed on 30th November 1413,

chivalrously pardoning the injuries he had suffered out of concern for the honour of his captain (11).

At this point, however, much the most numerous of these

foreigners were the English; as yet neutral in the wars and able

to intervene easily from Calais. Again, the Burgundians were the

biggest hirers. Duke John began his hirings in 1411 (12) and

English forces helped to take him to victory in 1412; many

quittances issued to English soldiers at the end of this year when

they were freed to go home survive (13). There were, however,

Englishmen in the Armagnac armies as well; a circumstance not

without its dangers for their paymasters; according to Lef~vre de

(9) J. Quicherat Ronrig4(de Villandrando Paris 1879 p. 8-11. (10) Monstrelet Vol. II p. 228. (11) Archives Communales de St. Jean d'Ang~ly, printed in Archives

Historiques de la Sainto~?e et de l'Aunis Vol. XXXII Parisi Saintes 1902 p. 94.

(12) Monstrelet Vol. II p. 172. (13) ego BN Clairambault 49 no. 147 (Thomas Fox), 85 no. 136-7

(Nicolle Peythole) and 100 no. 30 (Alixandre Sadrahan - though in this case there seems to be some doubt as to whether he was English or Scottish)

4 ,

St. Remy, Soissons was betrayed to the Armagnacs by an English

soldier in 1414 (14). On a much grander scale was the attempt to involve a large English army under the Duke of Clarence in the

summer of 1412; an expedition which in some ways foreshadowed

the Agincourt compaign and ended with the Duke being bought off

by his nominal hirers (15). Large-scale foreign intervention in French affairs was in th~ air at this time; John the Fearless was

to make a formal treaty with the Earl of Douglas when the latter

was in considerable embarrassment in Flanders and in danger of a

spell in prison for unpaid debts. Douglas agreed to come to help

John when required with no less than 4,000 men (16).

In the case of the English, one can indeed speculate as to

W;hat might have happened had Henry V not chosen to fish i~ the

troubled waters of French politics on his own account. It is

possible to imagine a situation in which England could have acted

as a major supplier of mercenary forces to one side or the other (whether on an official basis or not) without attempting any formal

conquest of France - a role similar to that fulfilled by Scotland

vis-i-vis the French after 1420. No doubt, though, she would

have driven much harder bargains about advantages to be conceded

by the French faction thus aided in return. Instead of this

potentially advantageous semi-neutrality, however, Henry V was to

decide in favour of asserting his highly dubious claims to the throne

of France, a decision which was to lead to a marked quickening ~n

(14) Jean Ie F~vre de St. R~my Chronique ed. F. Morand Paris 1876-81 Vol. I p. 164; also Monstrelet Vol. III p.7.

(15) Vaughan p. 97. (16) id p. 260.

5

the pace of foreign involvement on the French side as well. The

shattering defeat of Agincourt on 25th October 1415, with its con-

sequent effects on the military capacity of the French aristocracy

combined with the continuing civil war against the Duke of Burgundy

stimulated the need for allies and military aid. Indeed, even

during the campaign leading up to the battle, foreign troops can

be found; one Jehan de Seville with a company of mounted crossbow-~

men under the Comte de Vendome appears in the Caux area in Septem-

ber 1415 (17). The aftermath of defeat encouraged efforts to

Lncrease this involvement; according to a rather later royal

ordtn ance, it was at about this time that Scotland was first looked

to as a possible source of aid (18). More immediately, an

embassy consisting of Hugues Comberel, councillor of the Chambre

des Aides and Antoine Grielle, clerk of the Chambre des Comptes

went to Genoa in the winter of 1415-6 to recruit crossbowmen (19).

This was a rather delicate operation, since Genoa was technically

in revolt against France, but a generous distribution of money

succeeded in raising 660 crossbowmen under six captains, including

such famous Genoese names as Jacques Doria and Franco Spinola.

They were to reach Aigues~rtes for official mustering on 7th May

1416 and march northwards from Genoa and Castile to retake Harfleur

and entered Paris two by two in good array according to Jean Juvenal

des Ursins, who noted with surprise that there were only three or

four horses in the whole troop (20). He put their numbers at a

(17) Clairambault 103 no. 99, 100. (18) Ordonnances des Rois de France de la Trois~me Race Vol. X p.362. (19) The accounts of the embassy are to be found in Fonds Latin

(hereafter FL) 54l4A f59ro-6lvo. (20) Jean Juvenal des Ursins Histoire de Charles VI ed. ~ichaud et

Poujoulet Paris 1836 p. 531-2.

6

thousand and had them commanded by nine captains the chief of whom

was one Baptiste Grimaldi. It is at least possible that other

men could have been recruited by the ambassadors, and Baptiste

Grimaldi indeed appears at the head of 157 crossbowmen with eight

subordinate and unnamed captains in the garrison of Lisieux 1n

August of the following year (21); equally well, Jean Juvenal

could have confused the year. The monk of St. Denis manages to

boost their numbers to 5,000 with the addition of Spanish auxil-

iaries (22). These certainly existed and were not restricted to the traditional Crossbowmen. Recruitment was eased by the 1406

treaty with Castile which allowed Castilian subjects to serve in the French forces without penalty (23) but the exact scope of

such recruitment is very hard to judge in the absence of any detailed recruitment accounts. Some can be identified from

musters which have survived; the forces of the Constable reviewed

in Paris in January 1416 included such figures as Diego de Madrigal

with twelve esquires, and the probably Catalan company of Jaimet I

de Peyrussa (24) while other Spanish groups are to be found in the

ranks of Arnault de Barbazan's men (Jehan de Salcedo and Sanzo de

Laredo (25)) or operating apparently independently (Alphonso de

Caumont (26)).

(21) Clairambault 165 no. 67. (22) Le Religeux de St. Denis Chronique ed. L. Bellacuet Paris

1852 Vol VI p. 11-13. ,

(23) G. Daumet Etude sur l'Alliance de la France et de la Castyle au l4e et l5e Siecles Paris 1898 p.70.

(24) Clairambault 68 no. 33, 85, no.78. (25) Clairambault 65 no.22, 100 no.13l. (26) Clairambault no. 146 no. 76-81.

7

The majority of these men probably served either on board the combined Franco-Castilian fleet attempting the blockade at Har-

f1eur or in- the land army co-operating with it during the un-

successful siege (27). Others were put into Norman garrisons dur-

ing this campaign, such as Pierre de Bilbao and his twelve esquires

at Mon.t ~ilILLlfflLr, in the Caux in June 1416 (28).

Again, the winter saw recruitment abroad (it is perhaps to

this general period that the assertion of Hughues d'Arpajon, appear-ing before the Par1ement and giving a review of his career in June

1423, that he had been sent to Lombardy by the Constable to assemble

men to the number of 3,500 and bring them to France, should be

dated (29)) and the spring and summer of 1417 was full of the move-

ments of men from the south tmvards the seat of the war. In July

of that year, the consuls af Montferrand had to cope with the on-

set of some 1500 crossbowmen under Louis de Giustella (perhaps

Guastella, near Parma) marching from Genoa to serve the king.

His men were so spread out along the road that the column took from

the 22nd to the 24th to assemble fully in the town. Hhen they were

all present, the captain went before the consuls to demand aid from

them as a royal town against the garrison of "Nonette" which had

captured some of his men. He wished the help of the town in

effecting an armed rescue. The consuls, highly embarrassed by the

whole affair, begged him to move on because of the dangers his men

were bringing to the town, and in the end were forced to bribe him

(27) For an account of these operations, Rel. de St. Denis Vol.VI p. 36-41, 66-7, 98-9.

(28) Clairambault 14 no. 182. (29) Archives Nationales (hereafter fu~) X2a f2vo-3ro.

8 to go, captives apparently unredeemed (30). It may have been

the same troop which passed through Or1~ns in August (though the captain there is called the Seigneur de Caste11e) whose commander

had to be given presents of food and tuns of wine to keep his men

from pillaging (31), Such troops were widely distributed round

France; Genoese soldiers entered the garrison of P~onne in the north about this time (32) and Jean Juvena1 records another group

on guard at St. Jacques gate in Paris against the Burgundians (33),

whi1 st a Spanish group can be found serving under the Sene)

9

to have with their allies and nominal superiors; it also displays

very early the kind of attitude with which many Scots were to part-

icipate in the war in France.

The absence of complete royal accounts for this period makes

any guesses about the fate of such soldiers very hazardous; even

identification is an uncertain business and most of the information

comes in a very fragmented form ~p1it up amongst collections made

for genealogical purposes or otherwise preserved by chance from the

destructive impulses of the Revolution. Their generally humble

origins confuse the situation still further; such men rarely fig-

ure in chronicle accounts and when they do, only appear as a kind

of anonymous mass. One can hypothesise a little about the destiny

of the Genoese, but they remain largely elusive. Many, no doubt,

were taken by the English in Normandy during the course of the

English advance during 1417-18 and ':,7ere sent back. to Genoa (37) by

Henry V; when Rouen eventually fell in 1419 one Luca the Italian

was expressly excluded from a general measure allowing foreign

troops to depart (38). The Genoese in Paris were much less fortun-

ate; when the city fell to the Burgundians on 29th May 1418 they

were slaughtered in the strets as the upholders of a government

well-hated by many Parisians. Jean Juvena1 records his sorrow for

these essentially innocent victims "Mais ce fut grand pitie des

pauvres Genovois qui n'estoient que soudoyers"(39). This was by

no means the end of such companies, as we shall see in the next

chapter, but their relative importance was never to be the same

again and they slowly disappear from the records (if not perhaps

(37) Rymer Foedera First Edition London 1709 etc, Vo1.IX p. 659. (38) id p. 667. (39) Juvena1 des Ursins p. 541.

10

from real life; who can tell how many groups of Genoese crossbow-

men or their Spanish equivalents served peacefully in garrisons

well away from the main theat~es of war?). Isolated ones can be found surprisingly late; as late as 1445 a Genoese called Jehan

du Chasteau who had come to France some thirty years earlier to

serve in the wars appealed to the king for letters of remission

concerning a murder co~tted after his release from an English

prison in which he had spent some time. He, however, had settled

in France, judging by the fact that he stated in his appeal that he had a wife and three children (40). It would perhaps be too much of a coincidence to identify him with another Genoese called

Jehan du Chastel who was favoured with the aid of St. Katherine de

Fierboys in a trial by battle in 1428 (41). On the whole though times were changing as far as the employment of foreign troops went.

The defeat of Agincourt, which put such a large quantity of the

French aristocracy out of the military reckoning, the continuation

and intensification of the parallel wars against the English in

Normandy and the Burgundians in the north and round Paris, which

progressively reduced the areas loyal to the king (and, when mad

King Charles fell into Burgundian hands, loyal to the Dauphin Charles,

as Regent of the kingdom) and the considerable confusion as to who

had the right to represent the crown in France,with the consequent

confusion and uncertainty as to loyalties - all of these were to

lead to a much increased military role for foreign troops. The

three parallel musters on 24th June 1418 in Bourges of the Spanish

companies of Guille Hersart, Jaime de Perussa and Antoine de

(40) ~~ JJ 177 no. 175. (41) Le Livre des Miracles de Sainte Katherine de Fierbovs, 1375-

1470 ed. Y Chauvin, Archives Historiques du Poitou Vol. LX 1976 p. 55-7 no. 104.

11

, Pronnente (42) suggest that some kind of Spanish company of men

at arms may have been being organised, while the Italian Luquin

Ris went into garrison in Mflun in July 1418 with no less than

46 men at arms as against 29 crossbowmen (43). The real shift

probably came in this summer, when the Dauphin was trying to

establish his administration in Bourges and organising his armed

forces on the basis of the much-truncated kingdom still left to

him. From this moment on, foreign troops were considerably more

than the essentially auxiliary forces they had been in the past;

they were to become, for the next decade and more, a major, and at times, preponderant element in the French royal arm~es. It

is this development to which I shall now turn in the next chapter.

(42) Clairambault 59 no. 163, 85 no. 76. (43) Clairambault 95 no. 105.

12

Chapter II. The Time of the Great Armies - ~ercenaries 1418-1429.

The summer of 1418 found both parties ~n the Burgundian-Armag-

nac confrontation looking for foreign aid and reinforcement. Per-

haps predictably the first potential source of this aid to be

looked to was that traditional ally of France, Scotland. Both

Armagnac and Burgundian embassies crossed the seas in 1418 (1) and,

while the Armagnac one was to be crowned with success, this did not

mean that contacts between the Regent Albany, uncle of the captive

James I, who was at that point still in English hands, and Burgundy

were automatically broken off. Indeed it was by no means a fore-

gone conclusion that Scotland would support the claims of the

Dauphin to be the true head of the French kingdom; one should not

forget that until the disastrous assassination of Duke John at

Montereau in the late summer of 1419 there was no Burgundian alli-

ance with England to simplify the issue and the royal family itself

was totally split on the question. It ~s even possible that the

Scots made some effort to encourage the French factions to patch up

their differences in the face of English attack; the truce negot-

iated ~n the summer of 1419 may have had as one aim the easing of

Scottish military intervention.

The Armagnac embassy, however, did yield immediate results.

Not much is known about it or its composition beyond the presence

of the governor of La Rochelle, the Sieur de Plusquall,c on it (2) or

about the arguments and inducements used to persuade the Regent and

the Scottish Estates to agree to the requested aid. Perhaps they

(1) G du 7resne de Beaucourt Histoire de Charles VII Paris l88l-Y~ Vol. I p. 306-8. R Nicholson Scotland in the later '1iddle Ages Edinburgh 1974 p. 249.

en D d'.\ussy La Sai0to:,/-= pendant la Guerre de Cent A0S La Roc~elle 1894 p. 31.

13

were fairly similar to those used by the parallel embassy which

went to Castile on a similar errand in September 1419(3). Here

the French ambassadors ask,:;Jfor an army to be sent against the

English, ancient enemies of France and Castile as soon as possible

"for the great honour of the King of Castile" under a corrnnander of

the highest rank. The troops thus requested would be paid for six

months. The ambassadors were to go on to give a full account of

the needs of France and remind the Castilians of past French aid to

Castile. One could imagine a fairly similar line being used in

Scotland; apparently the appeals to honour and gratitude were more

appreciated in Scotland since, while the Scots responded, Castile

remained deaf to entreaty. Before we consider the forces voted by

the Estates, however, it is worth looking at what may well have been

a parallel activity of the ambassadors. This was the recruitment

of companies which were prepared to set out for France straight away

to bolster the Dauphin's forces in the lands which were coming to

be known as the Kingdom of Bourges. Certainly Scottish forces

begin to .appear in quite substantial numbers in this period, and it

seems logical to assume that the ambassadors In Scotland were

largely responsible.

In this summer of 1418, the Dauphin was fully occupied consol-

idating his hold on a kingdom riddled with disr~~.,ion and doubtful

loyalties. It is doubtful if Charles, as Dauphin or ki~was ever

to draw fully on the potential military resources of the areas

which remained nominally loyal to him in the dark days of the 1420's,

and at this period his hold over much of the country was highly

uncertain. Foreign troops were badly needed to fill the gaps and

recruitment from all quarters proceeded rapidly. Traditional

(3) FLat 602~ f12

14

companies of Italian crossbowmen were still recruited (Guillaume

Rain and Luquin Brisol both from Piedmont with a combined force of

some 146 men were retained at Villeneuf-iis-Avignon on the 11th

November 1418 (4))but more and more they yield place to the

Scots in increasing numbers. ~ichel de Normanville, Captain of

a hundred Scottish archers was retained at Loches on 22nd ~ovember

and elements of his company to the number of 29 moved on to take

part in the siege of Burgundian-held Tours in December (5). One

Jehan Stewart, also captain of a hundred archers was retained from

the 7th October at Niort, which suggests that he had arrived at

La Rochelle or another port loyal to the Dauphin in that area

shortly before. (6). Other Scottish troops were sent to reinforce

garrlsons. On 3rd November Loys d'Escrouilles, commander of the / Scots in the garrlson of Melun, issued a receipt for no less than

102 tuns of wine from the Sieur de Milly out of a total of 200 in

his possession (7). These were to be distributed, it would seem,

amongst the troops under his command.

The following year, well before the much-awaited Scottish army

reached France, this process continued. Their numbers were suffic-

iently noticeable for Jean Juvenal des Ursins to note the arrival

and activities of two Scottish knights, Thomas Quelsatry and

Guillaume du Glas (8) at this time. They are no doubt to be iden-

tified with Guillaume Douglas and his chief lieutenant Thomas Kil-

patrick who appear at t~~e head of 150 men at arms and 300 archers

(4) FF 7858 f339ro-vo. (5) ide f346vo. (6) FF 32510 f355ro. (7) Clairambault 43 no. 138. (8) Juvenal des Ursins p. 546.

15

on 27th May at Mthun -sur-'i~v~.t (9). A full list of subordinate commanders is given, but the totals of troops fall short by about

a third of the stated total company strength; perhaps several of

the"chambres" or subordinate sub-divisions of these companies were

posted elsewhere and missed review at that point. They reappear

at Puiset-en-Beauce in August 1419 after a summer of heavy fighting

at the western end of the line of English advance in Lower Normandy

and Mainecentring on the Sarthe round Fresnay-le~Vicomte which

Jean Juvenal recorded (10). This may form the basis of Francisque-

Michel's typically garbled account of the flight and loss of banner

of a Douglas of Drumlanrig at Yresnay (11). Certainly we find Douglas and his men passing review at'Montereau fault Yonne on

4th September 1419; no doubt they formed part of the forces cover-

ing the Dauphinist side of the fatal bridge before, during and

after the meeting (12). Several other Scottish companies entered

the Dauphinist forces during 1419; Guillaume Bel, captain of 30 men

at arms and 80 archers entered service at Sancerre on 22nd February

and moved to Gien with 13 of his Esquires (men at arms) in March,

while Thomas du Seton with 38 men at arms and 120 archers and

another Guillaume Douglas (there uere two men of that name in France;

they lie buried together in Orltans Cathedral) with 100 and 200

respectively recently come from Scotland appear in the accounts of

Mace Heron, one of the Tr~oriers de}GuerreSfor the period 18th August 1418 - 20th October 1419 (13).

(9) FF 32510 f360ro, 7858 f36lro. (10) Juvenal des Ursins p. 546.

,

Seton is presumably to be

(11) J Francisque-Michel Les Ecossais en France, Les Francais en Ecosse London 1862 p~.~1-1~8~.~~~----~~~~~----~5~-----

(12) FF 7858 f36lro. (13) FF 32510 f362vo.

16

identified with the Thomas D~ston, captain of slightly smaller forces

in May and June of the year (14). In May, too, Jehan of Liborne

(perhaps Lorne) was paid for the services of his cnmpany of 18 men

at arms and 56 archers fighting in Normandy, Maine and Perche under

the Vicomte de Narbonne (15); an interesting example of Scottish

forces being mixed with French ones in action (and indeed with

other foreigners, since at the end of the same month Emilio de

Plaisence (Piacenza) and his 19 men at arms are paid for their ser-

vice in the same company)(16). There is even an ancestor to the

later Scots bodyguard of the king in the form of the company of

James Colbourne and his 38 mounted archers in the Dauphin's own

company in Septemher (17). Perhaps he can be identified with one

Jehan Kocbourg (Cockburn ?) reviewed at Bourges in October (18).

By October, however, the situation was to alter drastically.

The days of piecemeal reinforcement by the almost random arrival

of individual Scottish companies to be plunged into the fighting

in Lower Normandy and the west were to be superseded by intervention

on a very different scale. The Armagnac embassy in Scotland,

which we left in the summer of 1418 organising the passage of the

companies we have been discussing, were looking for something much

grander. This they obtained from the Scottish Estates, which

assented to the sending of a force of some 6,000 men under the

Earl of Buchan, Chamberlain of Scotland and son of the Regent by his

(14) Clairambault 40 no. 122-3, FF 24000 p.6l. (15) Clairambault 65 no. 86. (16) Clairambault 86 no. 103. (17) FF 24000 p.14. (18) Clairambault 33 no. 31.

17 second marriage (19) and the Earl of Wigtown eldest sonl of the

Earl of Douglas and Buchan's brother-in-law. How many Scots

actually went to France is very hard to say. The Dauphin claimed

that 6,000 men had actually gone (20) but this seems an improbably

high figure given the resources of Scotland (a subject to which I . shall return later) and the probability of exaggeration in morale-boosting letters. Whatever the numbers, such a substantial force

posed transport problems which could only be solved by Castilian

help. Negotiations for this began on 22nd March 1419 and were

successfully completed on 28th June; Castile was to provide a

fleet of forty ships, each of at least 150 tons and manned by 4,000

sailors and crossbowmen and 200 men at arms to repel English

attempts at interception on the way to Scotland. Wages of 119,000

francs d.' or were paid in advance. The fleet was to assemble off

Belle Isle and wait there ten days before sailing on to Scotland (21).

Amazingly, Daumet believed that the fleet never sailed; in the

light of events an incredible blunder. Preparations on this scale

were impossible to conceal and by August the government of John, Duke

of Bedford in England was becoming seriously concerned. On the 12th

the Earls of Devon and Cornwall were instructed to set out to inter-

cept with their own fleet of twelve ships and "balingers"(smaller,

barge-like vessels). When it became obvious that these forces were

likely to be inadequate, one John Hunt was ordered to requisition

ships allover the south-western ports if necessary (22). By 5th

September, with the Spanish fleet off Belle Isle, Henry V, campaigning

(19) The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland ed. G. Burnett Edinburgh 1880 Vol. IV p. L.

(20) FF 25710 no. 3. (21) d'Aussy p. 31, Daumet p. 73-4. (22) Rymer Vol. IX p. 791-2.

18

in France, was concerned about the possibility of a combined

Franco-Castilian attack on Bayonne and other parts of English

Gascony (23). In fact the fleet went north as planned, evading

interception and loading its cargo of troops in September (One of

the Scottish commanders, John Stewart of Darnley, was still in

Scotland on the 21st of the month) (24). The return voyage was less

peaceful; off La Rochelle, the English did manage to make an inter-

ception but were defeated and the fleet came safely to harbour late

in October (25). The Spanish ships remained in the area for some

time; 'I on 19th November the town council of St. Jean d'Angely

found itself having to entertain a Spanish knight come to seek pro-

visions for the fleet. These were not necessarily always forthcom-

ing, since two more Spaniards came back later with a letter from

the admiral complaining that supplies had not been delivered.

There were other comings and goings between the town and the fleet;

the admiral's minstrel and his companion had also to be entertained(26).

News of the victory reached far; in Lyons on the 1st January 1420

the Dauphin himself ordered payment to "Sance de Sa'udry" a Spanish

squire for his services in the defeat of the English and the damage

done to his ship (27). It is possible that some of the troops who

served on the fleet may have been tempted into more permanent service;

certainly, despite the lack of formal Castilian aid, Spanish troops

can be found in France at this time. The inevitable crossbowmen

appear in large numbers in 1418 with four companies some 1260

strong passing review at Nanteuil on 3rd September and some passing

from there to take part in the siege of Tours (28). Alongside them

(23)Ryrner id p. 794-5. (24)A Stuart A Genealogical History of the Stewarts London 1798 p.115. (25)d'Aussy p. 32. (26)Arch. Hist. de la Saintoqv .. e et de l'Aunis t XlCXII p. 307-8. (27)FF 25710 no. 5. (28)~~ K59 no. 20, 12-15, ~5-6.

19

one finds Rodrigo de Alarice and 17 men at arms in the company of

the Count of Vertus (29) and through the summer of 1419 a steady

drift of smallish Spanish companies parallel to that of the Scots

(though much less numerous) can be observed. Jehan d'Avila,

knight batchelor, and four men at arms entered service on 13th

November at M{hun- sur~ 'i~v/"~ (30). Some Italians can also be found in addition to the one alluded to above fighting in Normandy;

Bartelmy Ie Lombart and his 18 men at arms passed review at St.

Brisson on 24th February 1419 (31) and Luqin Ris, already a veteran

of French warfare, with 19 men at arms was near Le Yans on 24th

October 1418 (32) after leaving his crossbowmen in M~lun. It was, however, the hour of the Scots. The Dauphin informed

his supporters of their arrival with joy and issued their leaders with gifts. The stable accounts illustrate this; on 31st Novem-

ber three coursers were bought and one given later to the Earl of

Wigtown. Thomas Seton received a similar present shortly after-

wards (33). By no means all the French nobles were totally con-

~inced of the real military utility of the Scots and the Scottish

chroniclers record some sneers behind their backs (34). The Dauph-

in, who needed them too badly to be able to afford to heed chis

(29) FF 7858 348vo. (30) id 36Ovo. (31) id 345ro. (32) FF 25766 no. 759-60. (33) AN KK53 f2,5 (34) Book of Pluscarden ed. F Skene Edinburgh l8qO p. 357, Fordun

Scotichronicon with Bower's Continuation ed. Goodall Edinburgh 1775 p. 359.

20

criticism ignored it, and indeed before the end of the year was pre-

paring the ground for further recruitment in Scotland. As early

as 27th December he was considering sending Buchan and Wigtown back

to recruit further and two days later, another letter was sent to the

Earl of Mar who had expressed an interest in joining the expedition to encourage him to come himself and recruit as many other lords as

he could for the same purpose (35).

The Scottish forces now available first had to be deployed,

however. The army was split up; one portion w~~into the garrisons

facing the Anglo-Burgundians in the Seine valley upstream of Paris

and in Maine and Anjou in the west (36) while another, perhaps larger, set off with the Dauphin on a tour of Languedoc in early spring 1420

aimed at neutralising the last flickers of Burgundian support in the

south and assuring the loyalty of the towns and nobility of the

region (37). Traces of these men can be found in the surviving re-

cords; Marc Balize with his trumpeter, 17 men at arms and 78 arch-

ers at Carcassonne on the 12th March (38) and Andro Banantin with a

company which fluctuates between 15 and 25 archers moving from L{"LI~

on 16th May to Toulouse on 16th June to finish at Cha teaune~f-su~ Loire on 25th July (39). He is referred to at times as forming

part of the Dauphin's bodyguard (40), and he remained in this function

at least until September, serving alongside other foreign forces in

this unit. Christin Chambre, a man with a long career before him

(35) NAF 1001 llro-14vo. (36) Scotichronicon p. 459 Jean Raoulet 'Chronique' in Jean Chartier

Chronique de Charles VII, Roi de France ed. Vallet de Virivil1e Paris 1858 Vol. III p. 170

(37) Raou1et p. 171. (38) C1airambau1t 9 no. 28. (39) C1airambau1t 10 nos. 185-9, 11 nos. 1-4, 17 no.16. (40) C1airambau1t 11 no. 1-4.

21 received the substantial sum of 1066 livres ~ sols tou~ois

the services of his company in the same role for April 1&2C (~l)

and Jehan Gonsalle was paid for his company of 2~ mounted c-::-oss-

bowmen i:l February and March (:'2).

On the whole, however, t~e Scottis~ forces who =or=~c :~e

bulk of the =oreign troops in France r~ai~ec inactive ~~ 1~20.

~e fact that their commanders were absent for ~ch o~ the C~-

paigning season in search of reinorc~ents ~y have contributed

to this. Buchan and Wigtown, in obedience to the orders of

December, went home some time i~ 1~20. The eating is rat~er un-

certain; Buchan was probably still i~ ?rance at the end ...,= ,,~~V v .... _C ..

when he was given a ~orse out of a group ?urchased on :~e 27:~ of

the month (~3). 3y the 28th July he was back i~ Scotlanc where

he presented his accounts as chamberlai~ in person rather than by

deputy (44), only to be back in France by t~e end 0: Au~~st when he, with ~igtown and Darnley were again given horses, this ti=e :ro~ a

batch purchased on 12th August (45). How 2anV ~en this brief ..

visit produced and the exact date 0= their arrival is uncertain; 3eaucourt places the number at ~-5,OOO and makes the= arrive i~

1421 (~6) but there is very little docucentary evidence to back t~is

up. Beyond noting that the ~assy cid take place, and accepting

that s~e reinforcements may have followed from it, however, there

is very little that one can say with certainty about it.

before this reinforce~ent, however, some of tbe Scottish forces

~l) Clairambau1t 28 no. 25. (~2) C1airambault 54 no. 23-~. (~3) A..'\ KK53 rSvo. (:.:..) Exchequer Rolls of Scotland Vol. P.T p. 333. (45) A..'\ KK53 fllro. (:'6) Beaucourt Vol. I p. 335.

22

were involved in action; those in the garrisons of the river towns

upstream of Paris. Henry V with his new Burgundian allies laid

siege to M~lun which had quantities of Scots in its garrison. That Henry was aware of the Scottish role in the French armies opposing

him is apparent from his production of the rather sad figure of the

captive King of Scots at M~lun in an attempt to persuade the Scots to surrender (47). .The stratagem was a failure; the Scots fought

on and when the town surrendered on the 17th of September, the

surrender treaty specifically handed English deserters and Scots

over to the mercy of the English king (48) (a clause to be repeated

at all later surrenders even when it is less certain that any such

were present X49). Henry's reaction was simple and brutal; he

hanged twenty Scots out of hand as traitors to King James (50).

There are other signs that the English king was becoming concerned

about the reinforcement of the French army by Scots; the flurry

of safe conducts granted to Scottish nobles wishing to see their king

from this time on testifies to a hope that James could influence them

against taking French service (51) and even perhaps divert some to

the English side. Indeed, on 30th May 1421 the Earl of Douglas

(Wigtown's father) was to swear on the gospels to serve Henry from

the following Easter with 200 men at arms and the same number of

archers (52), and it is possible to argue that the negotiations for

(47) Raoulet p. 167-8. (48) Monstrelet Vol. IV p. 13.

\ /. 72 (49) Monstrelet Vol. IV p. 94, Lefevre de St. RemyVol. II p. , Jean de Waurin Rec"~'il des Chroniques et Anciennes {5ro .. "..us de la Grant Bretaigne ~ Present Nomme Angleterre edt Hardy London 1868 (Rolls Series), Vo1.I p. 405, Vo1.II p.13, FF 23018 f42Ovo.

(50) Scotichronicon p. 462. (51) e.g. Rymer Vol.X p.18-9, 99-100, 127-8, 153-4 etc. (52) id p. 123-4.

23 James' ransom were only begun seriously at this time in the same

hope of stemming the flow of Scottish aid to France. The surpris-

ing thing is, perhaps, that such a supposedly brilliant strategist

as Henry V never attempted to cut off the supply in the most con-

crete way by attempting to take La Rochelle, by then the only port

safely in French hands instead of resorting to such doubtfully

effective diplomatic means. The failure of his efforts to open an

effective front in the south-west no doubt militated against such a

move, but it is also likely that his forces were at full stretch in

the Seine valley already; hardly a good augury for the future

strength of English rule in France.

Certainly, these diplomatic moves in London did not affect the

Scottish troops in France. The loyalty of their commanders had been

fortified by a generous distribution of lands by the Dauphin; A

Ch,t\ :. illon-sur ..... rndre to Buchan, Langeais to Seton (who appears thus

titled in an undated quittance of the period) (53), Dun Ie Roi to

Wigtown and Concressault to Darnley (54). The army itself had

been reorganised too, it seems, with the birth of what the French

were to refer to as the "Army of Scotland". By August 1420,

Darnley is referred to in the Stable accounts as Constable of Scot-

land (55) which means constable of the Scottish army in France.

Other signs of this improved internal organisation are evident as

well. On 12th September, the two William Douglases and Thomas

"Corpatrick", the latter now called Marshal of the Army of Scotland

appear in the accounts being paid for their services (56).

(53) Clairambault 103 no. 90. (54) Pluscarden p. 354 AD Cher C793 l7vo. (55) AN KK53 fllvo. (56) Clairambault ~l no. 143.

This

24

also illustrates the integration of the men who crossed earlier

into the main Scottish army. The administrative consequences of

this reorganisation were considerable, and, for the historian trying

to trace the activities of the army, very annoying since the Army

of Scotland, which presumably ~ad its own administration was kept

almost totally separate from the rest of the French military admin-

istration. While not all Scots belonged to the Army of Scotland,

and the central administration was in a state of some chaos at this

point anyway (57), the effective separation of the Scots from the

rest of the army means that all records have vanished long ago.

The records of some of Buchan's recruiting ventures, which survived

until the 18th century would have cast some light on the actual

organisation of the Scottish army, but they, like so much of the

archival material of this period went up in flames at the Revolution(58)

Given this detached position, it was perhaps predictable that the

Scottish commanders were given privileges with regard to payment of

their troops. In November 1422, John Stewart of Darnley as Con-

stable in command of all Scottish forces was paid various monies

for his men "non obstant que Ie nombre des gens d'armes et de

trait .. ne soit declaree es dittes lettres" and indeed in early 1423

when he was ordered to take his men to the Nivernais and Auxerrois

against the Burgundians, in order to be sure that his men would

march he was paid 30,000 1ivres tournois in advance for two months

wages "sans ce que de lui ne des Ecossois il feust tenu de faire ...

aucunes montres ni revues". (59) This obviously left much scope

(57) Contamine GES p. 240-53. (58) L Mirot 'Dom B~vy et 1es Comptes des Tresoriers des Guerres-

Essai de Restitution d'un fonds Disparu de 1a Charnbre des Comptes' Bib1iothe~ue de l'Eco1e des Chartes t82 1925 p. 295.

(59) Stuart p. 396-9, giving transcriptions of documents now lost.

25

for embezzlement on the part of the commanders; it also means a

desperate shortage of documentary evidence about the strength and

movements of the Scottish forces in France for most of their life

as an independent unit.

For 1421, however, one has little trouble in following thei~

progress from the chronicles, for this was to be the year of their

greatest victory. Henry V had left France early in the new year,

leaving his brother, the Duke of Clarence to campaign in the west,

where the Army of Scotland was operating along with French forces

under the Sieur de Lafayette. In March the armies faced each other /

near Bauge. With Easter coming on, a truce was apparently arranged

until this holiest weekend was past (60), though the English had

issued a formal challenge to battle (61). Clarence, however, break-

ing the truce, decided to surprise the allied army (that, at least is

what the Scottish chroniclers claim) on the Saturday before Easter

and advanced with such rapidity to accomplish this that he left his

archers behind (62) and caught the unsuspecting Scots playing ball

on the banks of a stream behind which their main army lay (63). A

hastily assembled group of some hundred Scots archers held the only

bridge under the command of Sir Hugh Kennedy and Robert Stewart of

Railston against the full weight of the English assault until the

main Franco-Scottish army had time to organise. When Clarence and

his men broke through, it was only to find themselves faced with even

harder fighting against the dismounted allied army. The English

slowly crumpled under mounting pressure and the death of the Duke of

(60) Pluscarden P. 354. ( 61) Juvenal des Ursins p. 564. (62) Pluscarden p. 354, Perceval de Cagny Chronique edt H Maranville,

Paris 1902 p. 119.

(63) Pluscarden p. 35!t.

26 Clarence,. which the Scottish chroniclers try to make the result of

a single combat with Buchan, though in a rather confused form, which

perhaps suggests the real confusion of the duke's death, with several

Scots (and others - Chastellain has him killed by a Frenchman) hack-

ing at him before he died, turned defeat into disaster. The defeat-

ed English had to pretend to be French to cross the Sarthe safely (64).

It was a disaster for the English - a windfall for the Scots. The

Earl of Somerset was taken by Laurence Vernon, the Earl of Huntingdon

by Sir John Sibbald and other noble captives were made. The Scottish

commanders, writing to the Dauphin on the evening after the battle,

sent Clarence's banner with their dispatch and his coronet passed from

hand to hand in the Scottish army to sett~e debts (65). English

losses were heavy (Cousinot's estimate of 1050 dead and 600 captured

seems reasonable) (66) and the news of French victory spread widely; in Italy Antonio Morosini received garbled reports which claimed that

the English had lost 6,000 men (67).

For the Dauphin, it was a vindication of his recruitment of the

Scots. If the Scottish chronicles are to be believed, the French

tried to steal the glory of victory from the Scots and were only

found out when it became clear that the latter had the majority of the prisoners; Charles is reputed to have scolded his nobles for

having described the Scots as "Mangeurs de moutons et sacs de vin"

in the past. Certainly the profits flowed to the Scottish leaders.

(64) For accounts of the battle; Pluscarden p. 354-6, Scotichronicon p. 461, Georges Chastellain 'Chronique' in Oeuvres ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove Brussels 1863 Vol.I p. 223-5, Juvenal des Ursins p. 564-5.

(65) Pluscarden p. 355-6, Scotichronicon p. 461, Beaucourt Vol.I p. 220-1.

(66) Cousinot de Montreuil 'Gestes des Nobles Francais 'in Chronique de la Pucelle ed. Vallet de Viriville Paris 1859 p. 180.

(67) Antonio :1orosini Chronique ed. Lef~vre-Pont q lis Paris 1898 p. 199-203.

27 / Vernon sold the Earl of Somerset to the Dauphin for 40,000 ecus

and, in addition to receiving the lordship of Montreui1-Bonin in

Poitou, was still being paid on money owed thirty years later (69).

In more immediate terms, he and Sibbald were treated to a meal by

the Dauphin (70). Buchan too, reaped his rewards, being made Constable, the highest military officer in France, at some time

in the year (clothing for the ceremony was ordered in May)(7l). Victory even called the Dauphin forth to take the field in person.

With the army's staff work improved by the posting of the disting-

uished astrologer Germain de Tibouville to Buchan's military house-

hold (72), the combined forces struck into Perche, taking Montmirail on the way (73). According to Chastellain, the army, six thousand strong attacked Alencon.

-'

The garrison, hard pressed, called for

relief from the Earl of Salisbury, the senior English commander in

France at that moment. He raised an army only by dint of calling

out all the garrison troops in Normandy and even then when the

armies actually faced each other he did not feel strong enough to

offer battle and withdrew northwards losing some 300 men from his

rearguard as it was harrassed by the advancing Franco-Scottish army;

hardly an encouraging sign for the English if one defeat left them

too weak to risk battle (74). The process of mopping up now isol-

ated towns continued. Gaillardon was stormed with great slaughter

(69) For size of ransom, see Arsenal 4522 f18vo. Lordship i~ Poitou, see H Filleau Dictionnaire des FamilIes de l'ancien P01tou Poitiers 184.)'-54 Vol. II p. 791, for continual payment, FF 325 tl f140ro (account for l45l)al~o AN K168 no. 21.

(70) AN KK50 f2vo. (71) ide f9vo. (72) Simon de Phares Recw~il des Plus C~lebres Astrologues et Quelque\

Hommes Doctes ed. Wicke,-'heimer Paris 1929 p. 250-1. (73) Perceval de Cagny p.12l, Juvenal des Ursins p. 566. (74) Chastellain Vol.I p.227-30.

28

as the advance towards Chartres continued; in this town, while

English prisoners were spared for ransom, Burgundian supporters

were murdered (75). The anonymous Bourgeois of Paris complains of Scots raiding round the city in this period (76). In this campaign too, one finds a receipt issued by Wigtown, now elevated

to Count of Longueville as his reward for victory, for a linen

banner and a four wheeled cart from the master of the artillery

(perhaps to carry his share of the plunder 1)(77). These days of easy campaigning were to end abruptly before Chartres was reached

with the return of Henry from England with fresh troops. He pushed

down as far as Chartres but the allied armies evaded battle and

Henry settled down to recapture positions lost in the course of the

disastrous summer. By 15th August he in his turn was besieging I

Dreux and the feudal landholders of the Dauphine as well as the

town militias were called out to relieve the place. They were

ordered to assemble at Blois, with the Lords of Scotland and other I~

captains assembling at Vendome(78). There is no record as